Last week’s deadly earthquakes in southeastern Türkiye were “the deadliest natural disaster on alliance territory since the foundation of NATO,” the alliance’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

In a joint press conference on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Stoltenberg’s visit is meant to show NATO’s solidarity with longtime member Türkiye after the February 6 twin earthquakes, which claimed the lives of over 36,000 people.

Thanking the NATO chief for his “active role” since the very beginning of the disaster, Cavusoglu said: “The NATO Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center has been coordinating this (NATO aid) assistance since the beginning.

The NATO Council has also decided to send (residential) containers and tents that are suitable for winter conditions from their inventory to our country.”

Cavusoglu said the NATO chief will also be received by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday and then proceed to the quake-hit Hatay region, where he will meet with National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar.

Akar and Stoltenberg will discuss supplies for accommodation to be provided by NATO to quake victims and visit the site for the preparation of these facilities.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 tremors on February 6 were centred in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces – Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig. More than 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.